~Lost Memories, Regained -Chapter 1-~
"MIMI! Hurry up! You're going to miss the elevator!" a young girl said to her friend, waving frantically. "Don't worry, Hana. I'll take the stairs!" the other girl, apparently named Mimi, said hurriedly as the elevator doors slid shut. She ran past the elevator and towards the door with the sign marked "Stairs" next to it.
Back in the elevator, her friend was panicking. "Is she crazy? She can't take the stairs! People get kidnapped in stairwells! They could get murdered, and it would look like an accident!" Hana said pacing a small circle around the inside of the elevator. "Hana... Calm down," said a slightly taller girl, "Remember, she knows how to defend herself. She didn't cosplay as a ninja for nothing," she reassured with an annoyed tone, "All you've been doing since we came to this anime convention is worry, worry, worry!" the tall girl continued. "I know, Bon-Bon but... I've just had this really bad feeling that something is going to happen today. And you know what happens when I get those feelings. We were five floors up! That's a LOT of stairs!" Hana said frantically, resuming her pacing. "Oh, Hana..." the taller one sighed, "You worry to much!" she said with a roll of her eyes.
On the stairs, a thought had just occured to Mimi. "I bet I could beat them down to the ground level... Those elevators are slower than my Great Aunt Muriel answering the door... which is pretty darn slow!" Mimi said to herself and laughed. "Oooh, I can't wait to see the look on their faces when I... AGGHHH!" Her thinking aloud was cut short as she suddenly slipped and fell. About three floors down, she finally stopped tumbling and lay on one the landings with a broken arm, a sprained ankle, and a shallow gash on her forehead. She opened her eyes slowly and groaned in pain. "Ugh... My head... Feels like it's on fire..." she said as her vision started to go fuzzy, "Eheh... Hana is gonna freak when she finds me." She tried to force out a laugh, but the burning pain in her head and limbs caused it to leave her mouth as a moan of pure agony. "Hana... Bon-bon... You two better hurry up and find me... Stupid, slow ele..." she said as she drifted into unconsciousness.
Meanwhile, down on the first floor, Hana was rushing out of the elevator doors before they even finished opening. "Come on, Bonnie. We have to make sure Mimi is alright!" Hana said running towards the stairwell. "Hali, this is ridiculous! I'm sure she's fine!" reassured Bon-Bon, whose real name was revealed to be Bonnie. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Hana, now called Hali, cut her off and yelled up the stairs "Mimi!...". Now she was beginning to panic again! "MIMI!... MIHARU!... ANSWER ME!" Hali said, now shouting loudly.
Bonnie was also starting to get worried. "Hey, Miharu! This isn't funny! You know how Hali is about stairs! Come on and answer us!" Bonnie called up the stairwell. "Come on, Hali. Let's go up and look for her." Bonnie said calmly as she started up the stairs. "Well... Come on! What are you waiting for?" Bonnie called back to Hali from a flight up. "All right, I'm coming... But if she's up there silently laughing her head off, I am personally gonna make sure she rolls down every single flight of these stairs!" she growled out, following after Bonnie.
A few flights up, Bonnie turned around to look a Hali, who was a flight below her. "You'd better hurry up or..." Bonnie started to say when she spotted an arm sprawled on the floor on the landing above her. "Oh... My... MIMI!" Bonnie exclaimed hysterically before scrambling up the last flight of stairs. "What, what is it? Is she siting on the floor laughing?" Hali asked, frantically trying to catch up with Bonnie. When she finally did, her breath caught in her throat. There was Miharu, knocked out cold on the landing with a shallow gash on her forehead.
"Oh... No!" Hali said as she struggled to catch her breath. "See?... I told you!... Now look what happened! I had a feeling! We should have opened the elevator doors back up. But no, and now... Now Miharu is... Well- just LOOK at her!" she continued, waving her hand in the direction of the unconscious girl. Her exclamations stopped, however, when she heard a small moan emanate from the limp form on the ground. Miharu opened her eyes the tiniest bit, just enough that her friends could tell they were open at all. "H-hey guys... Y-you found me..." Miharu trailed off as her eyes fluttered closed and she began to drift back into unconsciousness.
"I'll go get help!" Bonnie said as she lifted herself off the floor. "No, wait! Something is happening... Look!" the shorter girl exclaimed, pointing a finger at the once again limp form. Miharu's fingers had started to twitch, her closed eyelids scrunching up as if she was trapped in a horrible nightmare. Bonnie and Hali both stared on in horror as she flung her head back and began to mutter, "No!... No!... Don't! Please!". The two girls gasped and threw their arms up to shield their eyes as a bright light surrounded their friend. Their arms lowered as the light dissappeared and they could see again. The sight that met their eyes caused the both of them to gasp in horror! Their best friend... Miharu Kurokawa... Was gone!
